Boardwalk Empire S4 E5 “Erlkonig” Review

Boardwalk Empire S4 E5 “Erlkonig” Review

An established TV characters death has the ability to leave you not only speechless but also heartbroken. Of course, an important characters death in other storytelling mediums can have leave an equally emotional reaction, but TV is special in that there is a certain repetition of seeing a character for many hours over perhaps many years. I’m sure we’ve all have been heartbroken by a TV characters death (especially if you’re a fan of Joss Whedon shows), and the lasting effect of that decision not only can dramatically alter the shows character dynamics but also leave a lasting emotional impact on the viewer. Boardwalk Empire’s “Erlkonig” had a major character death, and while it did hit me in the moment and gave me as sense of shock, I didn’t hurt like I should have. In fact, I actually felt quite relieved that we would not have to follow this character’s story and we could focus on more interesting plot developments. So what’s changed? Have I become a heartless monster? Or does this characters death reveal an intrinsic problem with the show?